Now on Stage, the Tale of a Killer Still at Large

(Ruby Washington/The New York Times Cast members, from left, Paul Caron, Kelsey Schelling and Jordan Swisher, rehearsing “Killing Time,” a play inspired by the Long Island serial killer case.)

When “Sweeney Todd” had its premiere, whatever opening-night jitters the show’s composer Stephen Sondheim might have experienced there was at least one thing he did not have to worry about: a murderous barber showing up to catch a glimpse of how he was being portrayed on the stage.

Tom Slot, the writer and director of “Killing Time,” a new play that finds inspiration in the case of the suspected Long Island serial killer, said it had occurred to him, however fleetingly, that the killer might just find his way into the audience.

While he said he was not really worried, his wife, Jessica, is less sanguine. “She’s always had a little trepidation about the killer showing up,” Mr. Slot said.

Serial killers have long been a staple of movies, books and plays. They have been lampooned and lionized. Whether the killer is a likable, if murderous, sort, like in Showtime’s “Dexter” or a more frightening yet eloquent monster, like Hannibal Lecter, audiences are at once compelled and repulsed by a human mind at its most depraved.

But turning murder into entertainment gets a little trickier when the killer is not only based on a real-life figure, but someone also still at large.

Even before Mr. Slot’s play opened on Thursday night for a 12-show run at the Payan Theater at 300 West 43rd Street, he heard it suggested that the show itself might itself be an elaborate cover.

Mr. Slot recalled how an audience member at the Living Theater, where the cast performed a scene from the play, told him, “It would be a great scam if you really were the Long Island serial killer.”

In fact, Mr. Slot said the killer or killers in the Long Island case did not interest him as much as the victims.

“Everyone knows who Jack the Ripper is,” he said. “But if you ask anyone to name someone Jack the Ripper killed, no one knows.”

Mr. Slot, whose wife is from Long Island and who has lived in Massapequa for the last three years, said that he started conceptualizing the play soon after the first bodies were discovered in the desolate brush off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2010.

So far, 11 bodies have been found at the site. At least four of the victims are believed to have worked as prostitutes, and many of the deaths had gone unnoticed until a search for one woman, Shannan Gilbert, 24, from Jersey City, led to a series of gruesome discoveries.

Mr. Slot said one goal he had in writing the play was to show the victims as people. He thought about contacting the families during his research, but ultimately did not reach out to them.

“I decided to let the events inspire the story without intruding on the grief and loss of the families,” he said. “I can only imagine the degree of pain they went through and didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to pick at their scars.”

But he did visit Gilgo Beach. At the time, it was still an active crime scene so he could not get to the exact spots where the bodies were found. But he was able to get a sense of how strange and tragic it is to have a bland plot of land on the side of the highway, mostly glimpsed from a car window, turned into a grave site.

He began writing as details of the case were just starting to be made public.

“I actually got spooked last year when the police revealed that the four bodies found in December 2010 were found in burlap sacks, because I had written in a similar detail to the play,” he said. Similarly, when he read about speculation that there might be multiple killers at work, it was a little too close for comfort because his play also features multiple killers.

The play, however, does not adhere too closely to real events. For instance, the victims represent people from all walks of life, although it does include a prostitute, played by Claire Nasuti.

Mr. Slot also draws on other famous serial killers for inspiration: his play features three different killers.

Should the Long Island killer find his way into the theater, he might not take kindly to how he stacks up against the other killers. He is described by his peers as a “total hack,” an “amateur” and a “joke.”

And for Mr. Slot, that is the point.

“I really don’t like how serial killers are often made into heroes,” he said.